Download pdf - Game time: Marketing opportunities in social gaming

Game time: Marketing opportunities in social gaming

Catherine Thorn

August 27, 2009

Moxie Insight Spotlight Webinar

Agenda

Applying learning from social games to marketing

Implications: What is different, the same, and possible?

Marketing through social games case studies

Social gaming examples

The marketing challenge

Why social gaming could be the answer

© 2011 Moxie Insight. All Rights Reserved. 2

“Broadcasting an ad on television or in a newspaper is

admitting you have no idea who your customers are.”

– Gary Loveman, CEO Harrah’s


Marketers need a new medium • Consumers are paying less attention to

TV commercials than ever

• Despite the recession, 2008 video

game sales topped $21 Billion, a 19%

increase over 2007

• Video games account for 1/3 of the

average monthly consumer spending in

the U.S. for core entertainment

content








Agenda


Viral & Community Oriented

Provide Value

Command Full

Attention

Social games can be used

to create marketing that

gets attention, is

enjoyed by consumers

and is passed on to their

friends.

What makes social games better?


Popular game types

Puzzles

Racing

Sports

RTS

FPS ARG

RPG

Social

Invest

ment

FS

What is social gaming?


52% of online

consumers in the US

play video games for at

least 2 hours a week

Family Gamer (23%)

Game Socialiser (24%) Traditional Core (21%)

Weekend Player (23%) Online Puzzler (9%)

But do “normal” people play games?


Agenda








Fantasy sports: Different from your usual games

• Though very different from a video

game, fantasy sports involves

strategy and is very competitive &

social

• 27 million fantasy sports players in

the U.S. Mostly 18 – 40 year old men.

• Annual revenue estimates range

from $ 1 to $4 Billion.

• Premium add-ons typically include

scouting reports and draft kits

(usually priced at about $10 / year).

Yahoo! Sports was the most popular destination for sports news in 2008 – beating out the

likes of ESPN, Sports Illustrated, CBS Sports. We believe that their enormously popular

fantasy leagues (in 1999 Yahoo! was the first major media company to offer free fantasy

games, and they continue to be the leader) are one of the main reasons why.


• Provides a platform

where friends can

meet, chat and engage

in friendly competition

while watching their

favourite TV

• Still has over 40,000

monthly active users

This Facebook application transforms watching television

into interactive, cross-media experience

tvClickr: Adding value to an old medium


The Prosumer

Gaming Platform • Sims Carnival allows

anyone to create video

games by simply

answering questions

about their game

• Game creators discuss

tips & tricks on the

forum

Sims Carnival: Allows non-experts to be prosumers


Digital items overlaid upon the real world

Sony’s Invizimals use

augmented reality to battle

artificial animals against each

other in physical space

Using a webcam, real-world video is

overlaid with computer-generated

graphics to enhance the gaming

experience

Augmented reality: One of the newest gaming technologies


Agenda








Digital experiences extend

physical products

Physical products extend

digital experiences

• Webkinz are stuffed animals that

come to life in the digital world.

• Players of the MMO EverQuest

could order pizza through the

game

• In Japan, food can be ordered

through the Wii

Blurring the line between the game world and reality


Mobiles: the planet’s most

popular computing platform

• 3.4 billion mobile phones on the

planet

• 40% of mobile phone users would

rather lose their wallet than phone

• PCs are a legacy platform – mobile

phones are the new platform

“World’s Worst War”

Tohato’s marketing campaign

• The Japanese snack maker created a

game of war that consumers could join

when they bought the snack

Tohato’s mobile marketing


Games in social networks: Social networks in games:

• Most brands are on social networks,

but games help set the experience

apart

• Simple can be successful

• Roshambull is

rock/paper/scissors

• Though it’s 2 years old, it still

has an active user base of over

6,000

• Microsoft uses Facebook Connect

to personalize the Prototype

video game trailer

Games and social networks


Jay-Z’s Virtual Brand

Ben Sherman virtual clothing

In-game billboards

BMW in-game advertising

Advertising in games


Game fiction crosses into reality:

• ARGs cross multiple media

• Dynamic narratives blur reality & fiction

• Hidden reality known only to participants is part

of the appeal

• Often used for one-off events and promotions

(e.g. movies or albums)

• Often used to target audiences deaf to

advertising

• Currently, success is difficult to measure

Nine Inch Nails ARG

McDonald’s sponsored

“The Lost Ring,”

an ARG that engaged

> 2.5 million people

Alternate reality games


http://www.flickr.com/photos/trypd/478496337/

Agenda








What’s the same?

Extending digital experiences

with physical products

Offering food or other products through

games is simply adding another order

placement channel

In-game advertising

Billboards & product placement in games is similar

to traditional billboards & TV/movie product

placement but with better targeting and improved

attention

Sponsoring a game Game sponsorship is similar to event sponsorship


What is different?

Challenges Strategies

Gaming and Social Media are

still rapidly evolving

Begin with small experiments to find the

strategy that works best for you

For in-game advertising, how

do you earn the right to join

the game?

Create value with functional benefits or by

improving realism

Many mobile and social

networks games are fads

Creating a community around the game

can help prevent this

It can be difficult to make

games relevant to a brand

Create tangential links, such as Tohato’s

rivalry between two flavours

ARGs are extremely complex

and difficult to control

Don’t aim to control. Monitor the game

closely to ensure participants don’t get

frustrated


What is different?

Extending physical products

with digital dxperiences

• Facilitating social interaction

through digital experiences can

create a community that engages

with your brand when interacting

Opportunities common to other digital marketing

Social games on mobiles and social

networking sites

• Facilitates viral spread of marketing

• Easy to target individuals

• Allows you to be a part of the “in

between” moments of each day –

sitting on the train, between tasks at

work, waiting in line, etc.


What is different?

Alternate reality game marketing

• Great engagement - mystery and intrigue

keeps the game close to top of the mind

• Can reach an audience that actively

ignores mainstream media

Opportunities unique to social games

Extending digital experiences with physical products

• Can reach an audience that values convenience because they are

captivated by the game, particularly for traditional core gamers


What is different?

In-game advertising:

• Better metrics due to the digital

footprint and perfect information

• Consumers interact with products &

learn their features

• Dynamic advertising allows for time-

sensitive campaigns

• In the digital world, you can define the

functionality of your product, thus

creating inferences about the quality

of your brand

• Emotional investment in character

Opportunities unique to social games


What is possible?

Future developments in social game marketing

Location-based gaming:

• Applications that track your location and connect you

with people in the area that frequent similar places

already exist for the iPhone

• Geo-Caching, a high tech version of scavenger hunt, is

surprisingly popular

(Over 800,000 geocaches are active worldwide)

• Location-based gaming can lead consumers to your store,

provide you with location information, & provide

consumers with a fun experience

BrightKite Friends Map


What is possible?

Future developments in social game marketing

Better in-game metrics:

• With the technology in Natal, it will be possible

to gauge emotional response using the expression

on a players’ face

• Biometrics are starting to be captured during

game play:

Bunnyfoot provides eyetracking

and bio-physical measurements

(such as heart rate )

Wii created the Vitality Sensor


http://venturebeat.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/vitality-top-shot.jpg

Agenda








Developments in social games applied to marketing

Personalized marketing

• Games & game trailers are tailoring

the experience to each player

• Marketers can similarly take

advantage of rich profile data and

reality mining

Enabling prosumerism

• Mods – games that are modified by

users

• Partial open sourcing & enabling non-

experts to co-create can provide

value to consumers and the

enterprise

Lego Mindstorms


Augmented reality applied to marketing

My.IKEA concept

GE uses AR to promote

renewable energy sources

Layar and FoodTracer

overlay information

onto real world

objects


Catherine Thorn MoxieInsight.com